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On Saturday, June 27, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church elected the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry as our next Presiding Bishop. He has been, to this point, the bishop of North Carolina.

My dad had a friend, a fellow rector of an inner-city parish, by the same name, and it just struck me as an odd coincidence that we had two clergy named Michael Curry. Fr. Curry was the rector of St. James, Lafayette Square, an historically black – and very high church – parish in downtown Baltimore (Actually, St. James was “downtown”; Holy Cross was “inner city”.) from 1988 to 2000, when he accepted the call to North Carolina.

He won by a landslide on the first ballot – 800 to 12 in the House of Bishops, and approximately the same in the House of Delegates.

The man is dynamic, a wonderful leader, and possesses both the pastoral and executive skills to make him the perfect person for the job. He is wise and articulate, and will bring the church back from the brink of the bigotry which has nearly destroyed us, and make us whole again.

It is said that the Hawaiians have no word for “rain”. For the past week, Baltimore had no word for “sunshine”. Is has absolutely bucketed every evening, complete with tornado warnings. We never have tornados here.

Yesterday, it began raining about 3:30, coming down in sheets. We live at the bottom of a hill, and nearly at the end of a stream which stretches back over five miles, so when it rains we really get socked.

The water came up very quickly, simply because the ground is so soaked there’s no place left for it to go. Fortunately, once the rain stopped, the water receded almost as quickly as it rose. These two shots are of a mimosa tree that stands just at the edge of our stream. (When it was planted, it was several feet from the edge, but that’s another story.)

As you can see, the water was lapping at my toes, but within a half an hour of the rain stopping, things were back to what passes for normal around here. I am going to post more shots, and (I hope) a video on my Picture Trail account, so you can see more of what we had going on.

This is not an albino, as it had black eyes , but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen a snow white squirrel. It stuck around for quite a while, either eating from the feeder, or popping into the pipe where we hide the peanuts from the blue jays.

Mitt Romney said something I actually agree with! Take down that Confederate flag, confound it.

The Confederate Sates of America was a separate country, which declared war of the United States – and were defeated. They had their own President, their own army, their own currency. And their vice-president, Alexander Stevens, made it quite clear that their philosophy was based on the idea that “the Negro is the moral, physical, and mental inferior of the white man, and slavery is his natural condition”.

If this is the “Southern Heritage” of which they are so proud, how about I hang a swastika from my house?

Last night, our bishop, +Eugene Sutton was at St. Peter’s in Ellicott city, presiding at a celebration of renewal service. The people of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church have been recovering, renewing and rebirthing since the May 2012 shootings that killed their parish administrator and a priest. The gunman, obviously mentally disturbed, died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

At the same hour, Dylann Roof was opening fire in Emanuel A.M.E. in Charleston, SC.

Again, from the sound of things, the gunman is mentally disturbed. He has a history of drug abuse, racial hatreds, and his father had given him the gun he used as a 21st birthday gift in April.

How long will this nation allow this sort of thing to go on? The rest of the world sees us as outlaws, a remnant of the old west.

It’s time to take a good look at ourselves in the international mirror.

A few days ago, I mentioned that I had a shot of me feeding a snapping turtle, while Pepper and Blazer stood guard, directly behind me. Although it doesn’t show in this picture, that hunk of bread IS on a twig. I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I do not hand feed swamp monsters.

Now, picture this beast completely out of the water and me in my bare feet.

I have often complained, bitterly, about our neighbors to the north. They are honestly very nice people, helpful when the drive needs plowing in the winter, don’t beat their kids and animals, and all that. However, they have been known to throw parties that last until the wee small hours, complete with (illegal) fireworks and loud music. They are truck farmers, and don’t have to get up to push papers around a desk or milk cows. The rest of the neighborhood is not so fortunate.

Well, the Good Lord has taken pity on us. The house directly across the street from them has been purchased by a member of the Harford County sheriffs office. The party last night ended promptly at 11:00 PM. How about that!